From whence DM the GM came, yet interesting that there is no note of that in the article -- which offers nothing we didn't already know. But, nice for the recognition: http://www.boston.com/sports/articles/2007/07/22/this_time_its_not_about_him/ GM's moves intended to rocket team up the standings New Houston general manager Daryl Morey has had an eventful first summer on the job. There was the coaching change, as Rick Adelman replaced Jeff Van Gundy, and Morey then stunned many Rockets fans by selecting Oregon's Aaron Brooks in the draft when the team already had Rafer Alston and Mike James (acquired in a trade for Juwan Howard) at point guard. (Never mind that the Suns had interest in the kid, as did the Spurs.) But last week, the Rockets added veteran Argentine forward Luis Scola -- for three years and $7.452 million -- in a deal with division rival San Antonio. "They didn't want to trade with us and we didn't want to trade with them," Morey said. "But I think it's safe to say that the Spurs know what they're doing. I think this helped us both out." Scola had been the Spurs' property for years, but remained in Spain to play professionally. But no sooner had the Rockets made the deal than -- voila -- Scola's buyout from his European team (rumored in excess of $3 million) was taken care of and Houston had a power forward whom Morey envisions being in the starting lineup. "I think we simply made the best offer to San Antonio," Morey said. That was Vassilis Spanoulis, who detested his first year in Houston and wants to play back in Greece, where he is being aggressively pursued by Panathinaikos, for which he played prior to joining the Rockets last season. The Spurs included Jackie Butler in the deal, an athletic young'un who couldn't find time in San Antonio. The Spurs are basically bringing back the same group from last season, so there were questions whether Scola would play if he did sign. And there also was the possibility Scola would re-sign with his Spanish team to further delay any possible debut in the NBA. So San Antonio acted. The result is that the Spurs may end up with no player, but minus Butler's salary (low $2 millions) and knowing Spanoulis will gladly forfeit his NBA pay so he can get back to Greece. Houston, meanwhile, gets a potential starter and also just added Steve Francis, who signed a two-year, $5 million deal with the second year at his option.
Nothing like an article from a Boston source to infuriate and frustrate Boston fans even more about their lousy basketball team! No new info here as you said, but it might be there.
i knew about the suns' interest in brooks, but this is the first time i heard about the spurs'. and somehow, that's really encouraging to me. i guess it shows how highly i think of their scouts.
The Scola deal still makes no sense to me. Why didn't the Spurs trade his rights to an EC team for a pick, instead they choose to package it in a deal to an intra-conference rival as an afterthought to trading Butler for Vspan in a cap move. So the Spurs would just give us two players that would increase our chances of beating them for a conference championship. I hope this kid Scola is another Ginoboli or Nacioni but the deal still sounds too good to be true.
Actually, it was known that the Suns and Spurs were both interested and the Kings were interested, too, and trying to trade into the low first-early-second round to try and snag Brooks, too. In fact, there was video evidence on Youtube to support this (which I had posted in the days after the draft when people were questioning whether the Rockets took Brooks too early despite no indication of interest from other teams). <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OSsnG0lW2x0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OSsnG0lW2x0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
Good question. My only explanation is that they see something in Spanulious and are hoping for the best that he is what they think he is. Watching whatever limited playing time I could last year of V-Span with the Rockets, it's clear he's got a lot of athletic skill along with dangerous moxey, and his heavy turnover rate may have been overdone because of his ill-relationship with Van Gundy and also his own ego that he wouldn't prepare himself every day for games with garbage time. The Spurs are hoping he'd change that attitude and develop into another Ginobili. I doubt it, but really, it's the only explanation why they'd give a weapon like Scola to an inter-division rival.
By the way, I just want to point out that many months ago I suggested that we could trade someone nice for V-Span because of V-Span's perceived potential value. Everyone laughed. Well guess what? Eat crow because that was exactly what happened.
The Spurs don't hold his rights, they bought him out. They never intended to have him on the team. He's pretty much the same as a traded player exception to them.
That still doesn't explain why they'd give him to the Rockets. If the Spurs didn't hold his rights, are you telling me that Scola could've dictated who he wanted to be trade to?
No one has to eat crow. The Spurs got him to relieve salary. Once he is released + Jackie Butler's 2 million traded to us, they save 4 million on those contracts. Scola was about to sign a 5 year deal with Tau Cermana (is that how you spell it?) which would have put him at 32 when that contract expired. With no team wanting to sign a 32 year old rookie they had to get something for his draft rights. There was also a proposed deal that had Scola going to Cleveland with Bibby in a three-way with Cleveland, Sacramento, and S.A., but it fell through at the last minute, and our deal was the best one that was left. Check around the boards, all of this info is already here. I guess in a way, V-Span was valuable, but it's not the reason you think, it was his salary that's immediately coming off the books for S.A.
Aw, thanks Here's what I think Morey should do next: Trade for a future high first-round draft pick to a mediocre team ( not bad team ). With Head, Novak, Butler, Lucas III and the two second-rounders, we can package them for something that's perceived to be in the high 10's. I can see a team like Philly or Charlotte going for Luther. Hell, I'm sure we can even sucker Boston's Ainge to give us a possible first-pick next season if we threw in Chuck Hayes in there along with Head. Then we watch Boston suck ass and get a top-5 pick which then goes to us. It'll work.
They traded him to the Rockets because no team with a sufficiently large trade exception wants to take on the money owed to Jackie Butler and pay Scola and take the chance Scola wouldn't come over. Scola did have a 5 year, 10 million Euro contract offer pending, so if a team that he doesn't want playing for acquires his rights, he could very well have decided to stay in Europe and be financially pretty well off.
Yeah, but you still have to consider that it's an inter-rival they're trading with. They could've found an Eastern Conference equivilant to a " coming off the books " salary and shipped Scola off there. V-Span's contract isn't special. In fact, nothing about him was special enough for the Spurs to do a untypically dumb thing like giving a proven power forward to the Rockets, but they did it anyway and I think it has more to do than just his salary. Especially since the Spurs have made it open that they'd play Billy instead of send him off to Greece. So there goes the " off the books " theory right there. I'm also not sold that V-Span was the best deal they had left for Scola. Come on. It's **SPANILIOUS**
Inter-division rivals? Hell the Spurs have no reason to fear us, even with Scola. They just won the Championship, again! About the Eastern Conference part.....No they couldn't, that's why they traded with us. V-Span and Butlers contract is history, and it gets them from under luxury tax considerations.
This wasn't about his so called potential value. It was about him wanting to go back to Greece so bad that he will most likely agree to a very small buy out meaning the Spurs get out of his contract this year. So while he was traded for a nice player, it wasn't because of V-Span's talent. The Spurs front office has pretty much already said the only plan they have for Vinny is to buy him out.
Um.... this is false. The Spurs were in luxury tax hell and were desperate to get out of it. Scola was about to sign a 5 year deal with Tau that would have made his value exactly zero, and Butler was a salary they desperately wanted to dump. Meanwhile, the Rockets have a player (Spanoulis) who wants to void his contract, which would wipe it off the salary cap to help the LT situation, so the Spurs dangled Scola, who would not sign with them and so was of no value to them, in order to get rid of Butler's contract. The Spurs wanted Spanoulis for salary relief. They don't want him to play, in fact, if he shows up their trade failed and they still have to pay LT. As proof of this, right after the trade the Spurs GM called Spanoulis "roster flexibility." This is GM speak for "we don't actually want this guy to play for us, but we can void his contract and save money, and open up a roster spot for possibly Ime Udoka." For additional proof, look at Spanoulis's repeated denials that he'll come back. If the Spurs wanted him at all, they would have let him know about it, and he would have possibly changed his tune, but the Spurs don't want him on their team.
